MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL-PAPER, &amp;c.



PATENTED 11101.20, 1907. Y P; 0. SCHMIDT. MEANS FOR DISPLAYING. WALL PAPER, 8m;-

APPLIGATION FILED AUG 17 1903 e sums-mini" 1.

No; 863,661. PATENTED AUG. 20, 190'7.

F G. SCHMIDT. MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL PAPER, 650.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-17, 1903.

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PATENTBD AUG. 20, 1907'.-

P. C. SCHMIDT.

MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALLPAPER; 8w. APPLICATION I'ILE D AUG.17. 1903.

s SHEETS-SHEET a ms NORRIS PETERS ca WASHINGTON, n. c.

No 863,661. 7 PATENTED AUG. 20, 1907. F. G. SCHMIDT.

MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL APER; 666. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 17, 1|903.

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PATENTED AUG. 20, 1907. F. O. SGHMIDT. MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL PAPER, 8w.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.'17, 1903.

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PATENTED AUG. 20, 1907.

F. c. SCHMIDT.

MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL PAPER, &0.

APPLICATION rum we. 17. 1903. I

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FLORIAN-O.SOH1WIIDT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MEANS FOR DISPLAYING WALL-PAPER, &c.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 20, 1907.

Application iled August 17,1903. Serial No- 169,680-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLORIAN O. SCHMIDT, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Displaying Wall-Paper, &c., of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to means for displaying wall paper and other material of like form; and it has for its primary object to provide eflicient and improved means whereby different patterns may be simultaneously displayed in juxtaposition, so that their combined artistic effect may be readily observed.

With these ends in view, the invention consists in certain features of novelty in the construction, combination and. arrangement of parts by which the said ob j ect and certain other objects hereinafterappearing are attained, all as fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawingsFigure 1 is a perspective view of the improved apparatus as employed for displaying three pieces of wall paper for the wall, border and ceil ing respectively, arranged in the relation which they assume when in use. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of an adjustable box for supporting one of the feed rollers and the arm for adjusting the roller hereinafter described. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a clutch hereinafter described. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the appa ratus with the driving shaft and casing shown in vertical section taken on the line 4-4 Figs. 5, 6, and 8. Fig. 5 is a rear elevation thereof with the casing shown in vertical section taken on the line 55 Figs. 7, 8 and 9. Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken on the line 66, Figs. 4, 7 and 8. Fig. 7 is a vertical section taken on the line 77 Figs. 6 and 8. Fig. 8 is a plan section on the line 88, Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7. Fig. 9 is an enlarged detail view, partly in vertical section, of the automatic reversing mechanism shown in Fig. 4.

The invention is herein illustrated as utilized for exhibiting wall paper. Ordinarily it is desirable to display simultaneously both the paper for the ceiling and the wall as well as that for the border, and to have these arranged in the relation which they assume when in use in order that their combined artistic effect may be ascertained or observed. This invention is particularly designed for making such display of a plurality of different patterns of wall paper, or other material of like form.

As shown in Fig. 1, a casing 1 is employed for housing the mechanism and forming an appropriate setting for the various strips of wall paper, 2, 3, 4, which represent the wall, border and ceiling respectively, and in order that the ceiling pattern may appear in substantially the position in which it would appear in use on the ceiling, the upper part of the casing 1 is provided with a forward overhanging extension 5, which may be horizontal or inclined, as desired. In the example of the invention shown in the drawings it is slightly inclined so as I to better display the pattern where it is not feasible to have the extension 5 as high as an ordinary ceiling.

It is the purpose of this invention to provide within the casing a plurality of strips or bands, each made up of a plurality of different patterns, and to so arrange these patterns on their respective bands or strips that the proper combination of patterns will appear at the front of the casing simultaneously, the border and the wall appearing and disappearing simultaneously notwithstanding the difference in their lengths, and it is also the purpose of this invention to have the construction such that the patterns may be thus caused to successively appear in the front of the casing as long as the machine is operated, regardless of the lengths of the bands or strips which carry the patterns, so that the operator, if the machine be operated by manual power, may continue the operation as long as the customer desires to view the different patterns without giving himself any concern as to the time when the end of ths strip will be reached. The various devices and mechanism for accomplishing these results will now be described.

The wall strip or band 2 is wound upon two rollers, 6, 7, mounted one above the other in suitable bearings 8 on standards 9, and both located within the casing 1; the border strip, or pattern 3, is wound upon two similar rollers, l0, 11, mounted in suitable bearings 12 above the bearings 8 on standards 9; and the ceiling pattern, or strip 4, is wound upon two rollers, 13, 14, mounted in bearings 15 on the standards 9 above the bearings 12, all of these rollers also being located within the casing 1. The strip 2 passes from the roller 7 between two feeding rollers 16, 17, arranged one beneath the other, and from these latter it passes under an idle guide roller 18 journaled in the front of the casing 1 so as to hold the strip close to the opening in the front of the casing and in line with the border strip 3, adjacent to which latter it passes over another idle roller 19 similar to the roller 18, and thence downwardly between two feeding rollers 20, 21, arranged close together and similar to the rollers 16, 17. From the rollers 20, 21 it passes to the roller 6 and is wound thereon, the ends of the strip 2 being preferably secured to the rollers 6, 7, respectively. The strip 3 passes from the roller 11 between two feeding rollers 22, 23, and thence under an idle guide roller 24, which is journalcd in the casing 1 contiguous to the roller 19 so that the lower edge of the border strip and the upper end of the wall strip will be juxtaposed. From the guide roller 24 the strip 3 passes upwardly over a similar guide roller 25, and thence downwardly between two additional feeding rollers 26, 27, and from the latter it passes around the roller 10. The ceiling strip 4 passes from the roller 14 between two feeding rollers 28, 29, and thence under an idle guide roller 30 arranged contigubus to the roller 25, and from the roller itpasses laterally along the inclined part 5 of the casing around an idler 31, and thence rearwardly between two feeding rollers 32, 33, and from the latter to the roller 13.

One of the rollers of each of the pairs of feeding rollers is journaled rigidly in any suitable manner in a pair of standards 34 and each is provided with a beveled pinion as a means of deriving motion from the driving mechanism, such beveled pinions being all located on the same side of the machine and the driving mechanism consisting of an upright shaft 35 which is provided at a point adjacent to each pair of the driving rollers with a companion pinion adapted to mesh with the aforesaid beveled pinions respectively. The latter pinions are shown at 36, 37, 38, 39, and 41 and their colnpanion pinions on the shaft 35 at 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 4'7. The bevels of the latter are turned alternately in opposite directions, the gear or pinion 42 being turned downwardly, 43 upwardly; the gear or pinion 44 turned downwardly, the gear 45 upwardly; the gear or pinion 46 turned downwardly and the gear 47 upwardly. All of these horizontal gears on the shaft 35 are rigidly secured thereto and are arranged in pairs at such distances apart that when the shaft 35 is raised and lowered they will alternately engage and disengage their respective pinions on the feeding rollers. Thus when the shaft 35 is in its lowered position the gears 42, 44 and 46 will be in engagement with the pinions 36, 38 and 40 respectively, and hence the feeding rollers to which said pinions are secured will be rotated and the strips 2, 3, 4, thereby caused to travel in the direction 0 frotation, the strips passing loosely through the idle pairs of feeding rollers and being taken up by their respective take-up rollers, which may be either 6 or 7 for the strip 2, 10 or 11 for the strip 3 and 13 or 14 for the strip 4, according to the direction in which the strips are traveling, as will be presently described With the parts in the position shown in drawings, the strip 2 is being fed from the roller 6 on to the roller 7 by the lower pair of feed rollers 16, 17 which pinch it while it passes loosely through the upper set 20, 21; the strip 3 is being paid out by the roller 10 and wound up by the roller 11, to which latter it is fed by the feeding rollers 22, 23 while passing loosely between the feeding rollers 26, 27; and the strip 4 is being paid out by the roller 13 and fed to the roller 14, on which it is wound by the feeding rollers 28, 29, while passing loosely through the feeding rollers 32, 33. It will thus be seen that each of the strips has two pairs of feeding rollers which alternately act as feeding rollers and idlers as the shaft 35 is raised and lowered. In order that the feeding rollers may thus separate and approach each other for alternately gripping and releasing the strip, one of the rollers of each pair is made adjustable by any suitable means operatively connected with the shaft 35 so as to act in unison therewith when the latter is raised and lowered. A preferable means of accomplishing this is shown in Fig. 2, which illustrates one of the feeding rollers having its journal or shaft 16 mounted in a block 49 and arranged eccentrically with relation to such feeding roller, and to the outer end of this shaft 16 is fixed a crank arm 50, one of these crank arms being provided for each pair of the rollers and all having their inner ends connected to a vertical lift-rod 51 by means of pins 52 working in slots 53 in the ends of the arms, so that when the rod 51 is raised or lowered the roller having the eccentric journal 16 of each pair will be caused to approach or recede from its companion roller, and thereby grip or release the paper accordingly as the rod 51 is raised or lowered. The rod 51 may be connected with the shaft 35 so as to rise and fall in unison therewith by any suitable means, such as a cross-tree 54 having its end confined between a pair of collars 55 secured to the shaft 35.

The block 49 is made adjustable preferably in all directions so that the roller carrying the eccentric journal 48 may be adjusted with relation to its companion roller with great nicety. This adjustment of the block may be accomplished by means of a number of set screws 56 arranged in the four sides of a box 57 which houses the block 49, and which block may be attached in any suitable way to one of the uprights or stand- -ards 34.

As the feeding rollers become alternately operative and idle, the taking-up and paying-out rollers, to which the ends of the different strips are secured, respectively, also become idle and driven so that as the strip leaves one it will wind upon the other and will not sag down into the casing after leaving the feeding rollers. To this end, therefore, each of the rollers, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, is provided with a beveled pinion 58 arranged contiguous to the vertical shaft 59 which is supported by a pair of collars 55 upon the end of the cross-tree 54 like the shaft 35 and is movable vertically in unison therewith. On the shaft 59 adjacent to the pinion 58 of the roller 7 is a bevel-gear 60 which is adapted to engage with said pinion 58 when the shaft 59 is lowered and thereby positively drive the roller 7, which then acts as a take-up roller for the strip 2, and adjacent to the beveled pinion 58 of the roller 6, on the shaft 59, is a bevel-gear 61 which is adapted to engage with the pinion 58 of roller 6 when shaft 59 is raised, the gear 60 at this time rising out of engagement with the pinion of roller 7, thereby causing the roller 6 to become the take-up roller and the roller '7 the paying-out roller. The shaft 59 is provided with additional gears or pinions adjacent to the beveled pinions 58 of the rollers 10, 11, 13, 14, respectively, which act in the same way to alternately engage and release said pinions as the gears 60, 61 do with reference to the rollers 6, 7. The driving gear on the shaft 59 for the roller 11 is shown at 62, for the roller 10 at 63, for the roller 14 at 64 and for the roller 13 at 65.

It is obvious, however, that inasmuch as the diameter of the roll increases as the strip winds thereon, and consequently the surface speed of such roll would necessarily vary, it is important that some means he provided for compensating for this increased speed as the diameter of the roll increases. Each of the gears or pinions on the vertical shaft 59, therefore, is provided with frictional connection with. such shaft instead of positive connection, so that the shaft 59 may always be driven at a sufficient rate of speed to take up the strip and keep it taut while without at any time pulling it with sufficient force to tear it or to make it feed faster than its allotted speed. This frictional device may be the same for each of the gears 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65, and it is shown in Fig. 3 in detail in connection with the gear 60, for example. The gear is formed with a hub 6?, which is provided with a socket 67 of conical form, and in this socket is set a cone 68, which may be composed of vulcanite, fiber or other suitable material, and which is securely fastened to the shaft 59 by any suitable means capable of permitting it to slide vertically thereon, as a sleeve or hub splined on shaft 59 in the ordinary way, the cone 68 being rigidly secured to the sleeve (39 in any suitable manner. In order that the pressure of the cone 68 in its socket 67 may be maintained and varied as desired an adjusting nut 70 is secured on the shaft 59 above. it, so that by strewing it downwardly it causes the cone to tighten in its sot kct 67. In order that the adjustment of the nut 70 may be maintained a jam-nut 71 is arranged above it. As a means of threading these nuts on the shaft 59 a threaded sleeve 72 is employed and secured to the shaft by pin 73 or any other suitable means. By the means described it will be seen that the friction of all the cones 68 in their sockets 67 may be so nicely gaged as to enable the paying-out and taking-up rollers to keep their respective strips taut without danger of tearing them and regardless of the continually varying size of the diameters of the rolls.

The shaft 59 may be driven independently, but it is preferable to drive it by some suitable connection with the shaft 35, which is itself driven by any suitable means and by manual or mechanical power. As a simple illustration, a hand-crank 74 is shown with its handle accessible on the outside ofthe casing 1, the shaft 75 of the crank being connected to the shaft 34 by a pair of beveled pinions 7G, 77, the latter of which is splined on shaft 35, so that the shaft may rise and fall independently of the pinion when receiving motion therefrom. At the upper end of shaft 35 is another pinion 78 which engages with a pinion 79 on a horizontal shaft 80, which transmits the motion to shaft 59 through the intermediary of beveled pinions 81. The shaft 80 rises and falls with the shafts 35, 59, and to that end may be mounted in any suitable bearing 82 slidably secured by bracket 83 to one of the standards 9 which carries the bearings 84 for the shaft 59, or any other suitable means may be employed. The shafts 35 and 59 are stepped in vertical sockets 85 which steady and guide them at their lower ends.

In exhibiting wall paper it is, of course, desirable that the patterns of the wall, the border and the ceiling be arranged in the relation which they assume when on the wall, and consequently the height of that portion of the border strip 3 which is exposed to view in the front of the cabinet is considerably less than the height of that portion of the wall strip 2 which appears in the front of the cabinet if the latter be of a length approxii mately proportional to the height of the border. The length of the portion of the ceiling strip 4 which is exposed toview in the front of the cabinet is, of course, immaterial, but to show the paper at its best it is desirable that it be longer than the height of the border strip 3. Consequently the three strips must be driven at different rates of speed. With the proportions shown in the drawings, the strip 2 is driven three times as fast as the border strip 3 and the ceiling strip 4 about twice as fast as the border strip. Hence the gear wheels 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 47 are graduated in size, the pair 44, 45, which drives the border strip 3 being the smallest. The same condition obtains with the take-up and paying-out rollers 6, 7, 10, 1]., 13 and 1 1, and consequently the pair of gear wheels 60, 61, which drive the rollers 6, 7 for the wall strip 2 are larger than the gear wheels 64, G5, which drive the ceiling strip rollers 13, 1 1, and the gears 62, 63 are smaller than those of either of the other pairs.

in the operation of the machine it is of course necessary to reverse the direction of rotation of all of the rollers which take up and pay out the strips and at the same time separate one pair of the feeding rollers and close together the other pair acting on the same strip so that the pair of feeding rollers which acted to feed the strip on to one of the taking-up and paying-out rollers when the strip was running in one direction will become idlers when the strip reaches the limit of its travel in that direction and the pair of feeding rollers which formerly acted as idlers on the same strip will close together against the strip and act as feeding rollers to return the strip in the opposite direction, and with this alternate opening and closing of the feeding rollers simultaneously occurs the reversal of the direction of rotation of that pair which is to serve to feed the strip. This, as before explained, is accomplished by the gear wheels on the vertical shaft 35 alternately engaging the pinions of the upper and lower pairs of feeding rollers. in order that this reversal may be accomplished automatically without requiring the operator to give any especial attention to the machine further than to continue the turning of the crank always in the same direction, a mechanism for automatically raising and lowering the lift-bar 51 is provided and will now be explained. 86 is a lever pivoted in a bracket 87 and having rollers 88 journaled in its ends and bearing againstthe rolls of the strip 2 on the two rollers 6, 7 respectively, so that as these rolls alternately increase and decrease in size the lever 86 will be oscillated on its pivot for imparting motion to a toothed segment 89 which engages a rack-bar 90stepped in a suitable guide 91 at its lower end and having a guide stem 92 at its upper end engaging in the lower end of lift-rod 51. The lower end of lift-rod 51 is provided with a shoulder 93 which is engaged by a tooth 94 on a pivoted dog 95 when rod 51 is in its lowered position, and is thereby held from being elevated until the dog 95 is tripped; sleeved on the rack-bar 90 is a coil spring 96 which is supported on the bar by a collar 97 and engages under and presses against the lower end of lift-rod 51 as the segment 89 is turned in one direction, causing the spring to become compressed. This compression of the spring is, of course, the result of the increased diameter of one of the rolls of the strip on the rollers 6, 7, and by the time all, or substantially all, of the strip is wound up one of these rollers, the lower one, for example, the tension of the spring 96 will have become sutli ciently great to lift the rod 51 and the parts supported thereon, and the dog 95 will be tripped by the straightening out of a chain, or other suitable connection, 98, connected to the dog and to a lever 99 which operates the segment 89, thereby shifting all of the lower gears out of engagement with their pinions and throwing the upper gears into engagement, and thus transferring the driving power from the lower take-up and paying out rollers to the upper take-up and paying-out rollers of each pair, and from the lower feeding rollers to the upper feeding rollers of each of the strips, while at the same time separating the lower feeding rollers and closingtogether the upper feeding rollers through the intermediary oi the eccentrics 4S and the parts connected with lift-rod 51, as beiore explained.

As the lift-rod 51 rises the shoulder 93 engages over a second tooth 100 on the dog" 95 and the rod 51 is thus rigidly supported against downward motion until the dog 95 is again tripped. The strip now winding from the lower roller 7 to the upper roller (3, the lever 86 is oscillated in the reverse direction, and consequently the rack-bar 90 is pulled downvardly, relieving the rod 51 of the pressure of spring 96, leaving the rod 51 and its connected parts to fall by gravity when the dog 95 is again tripped. This occurs when all 01' the strip, or substantially all 01 the strip, is wound on the upper roller (5, and is produced by a trip 101 on the segment 89 striking a tail-piece 102 of the dog 95, throwing; the tooth 1.00 outwardly from under shoulder 93. The dog 95 may be held up to its work by any suitable means, as a spring 103.

1i desired, the lift-rod 51. and the parts supported thereby may be counter-weighted so as to relieve spring 96 of undue pressure in any suitable way, as by means of a toothed segment 104 engaging a rack-bar 105 formed on the side of rod 51, the segment 104 having an arm or lever 106 on which is adjustably supported a weight 107.

The connection between lever 86 and lever 99 of the segment 89 may be any suitable expedient, as a bell crank 108 pivoted in bracket 109 and connected to lever 86 by link 110 and to a crank arm 111 by a rod .112, crank arm 111 being secured to a crank arm 11 1 carrying a shalt 113 connected to lever 99 by rod 115.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters latent is:

l. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a strip of flexible material, two rollers on which the ends of said strip are wound respectively, means for holding said strip and displaying it throughout a part of its length, two pairs of feeding rollers engaging said strip at points in its length between said first rollers, one roller of each of said pairs being movable bodily with relation to its companion roller. means for alternately drawing said movable rollers into and out of engagement with their companion rollers. means for rotating one of the rollers of each of said pairs of feeding rollers. and an operative connection between said rotating means and one of the first said rollers for rotating the latter.

2. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a flexible strip of material. two rollers on which the ends of said strip are wound. two pairs of feeding rollers engaging said strip at points in its length between said first rollers, one roller of each oi? said pairs being a driven roller, driving means shiftable alternately into and out of engagement with said driven rollers, driving means shift-able alternately into operative relation to said first rollers, and means connecting the said two driving means together, whereby the first said rollers will alternately become operative and inoperative and said driving rollers will alternately drive said strip.

:2. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a strip of flexible material, taking-up and paying out rollers on which the ends of said strip are wound, means for driving said rollers alternately, two pairs of feeding rollers engaging said strip at points between said paying-out and taking-up rollers, means for driving said feeding rollers alternately, and a driving means rotatable continuously in one direction, having operative connection with both of the aforesaid driving means.

4. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a strip of flexible material, means for holding said strip and displaying it throughout a portion of its length, reversible feeding mechanism for causing said strip to travel alternately in opposite directions, a pair of roll ers on which the ends of said strip alternately wind and unwind, a shifting mechanism for causing said feeding mechanism to reverse, a lever having its ends operatively related to said rollers respectively, and adapted to be oscillated by the strip winding thereon, and an operative connection between said shifting mechanism and said lever for reversing said feeding mechanism when the rollsv length, reversible feeding mechanism for causing said strip to travel alternately in opposite directions, means for locking said feeding mechanism against reversal, a spring acting against said lock for causing said mechanism to re verse, means operatively related to said strip for causing the motion of said strip to compress said spring, and a trip operatively related to said compressing means for releasing said lock when the strip arrives at the end of its travel.

G. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combt nation of a flexible strip, means for holding said strip and displaying it throughout a portion of its length, reversible feeding mechanism for causing said strip to travel alternately in opposite directions, a lock for holding said feeding mechanism against reversal in both directions, a spring acting against said lock, means operatively related to said strip for causing the compression of said spring by the travel of the strip in one direction, means for releasing said lock when the strip arrives at the end of its movement in that direction, means for drawing said spring away from said lock as the strip travels in the opposite direction, and means for again tripping said lock when the strip arrives at the end of its movement in the latter direction.

7. In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a flexible strip of material, means for holding said strip and displaying it throughout a portion of its length, reversible feeding mechanism causing said strip to travel alternately in opposite directions, a shifting mechanism for causing the said feeding mechanism to re verse. comprising a rod, a rack-bar movable with relation to said rod, aspring having abutment against said rackbar and said red at opposite ends, a lock for holding said rod against movement in both directions, a segment on said rack-bar to compress said spring against said rod and against the action of said lock, means for operating said segment in unison with the travel of said strip and means for releasing said lock when the strip reaches the limit of its movement in either direction.

FLORIAN C. SCHMIDT. 

